inewsource reporters Joanne Faryon and Brad Racino received the prestigious Berger Award this week for “An Impossible Choice,” an investigation of end-of-life care in California. The Columbia Journalism School recognized the journalists for an “outstanding example of in-depth, human interest reporting” at a ceremony in New York City.
“An Impossible Choice” was an unprecedented look at a system that maintains more than 4,000 patients on life-support living in California. The award jury commended the investigation for its “combination of powerful investigative journalism and good storytelling, commendable for its formal innovation.”
Faryon and Racino were in distinguished company at Columbia event. The journalism school also gave out its highest honor — the Columbia Journalism Award for a lifetime of outstanding work that “exemplifies excellence in the field” — to NPR’s legal affairs correspondent, Nina Totenberg. She was applauded for her almost four decades of award-winning coverage of the Supreme Court.
The journalism faculty also honored New Yorker staff writer Jane Mayer, selecting her as this year’s Pringle Lecturer. The selection goes towards a journalist covering “Washington, D.C., politics and public policy.” Besides her work for the magazine, Mayer has written and co-written several books, including “The Dark Side: The Inside Story of How the War on Terror Turned into a War on American Ideals.”